World Breaking News

Turkish lira tumbles further as central bank fails to shore up confidence

January 11, 2017

By Daren Butler and Nick Tattersall ISTANBUL, Jan 11 (Reuters) – Turkey’s lira fell to new lows on Wednesday, piling pressure on a central bank reluctant to hike interest rates and raising the prospect of investment cuts by firms with high foreign debt if its slide cannot be halted. The lira has lost more than 9 percent against the dollar since the start of 2017, making it the worst-performing major currency of the new year, as concern about political and economic stability is compounded by doubts about whether the authorities will take decisive steps to stabilise it. The central bank’s unwillingness to hike interest rates to stem the lira’s fall has exacerbated worries about militant bombings, an economic slowdown and political uncertainty over plans to bolster President Tayyip Erdogan’s powers. The lira, which has lost around a quarter of its value against the dollar since an attempted coup in July, was trading around a record low of 3.8990 at 1420 GMT. “The lira’s blood loss is accelerating … The problem is very clearly particular to us,” said Fatih Keresteci of Istanbul-based DNG Consultancy. Other emerging markets were mostly trading firmer on Wednesday. Some 27,000 companies in Turkey – many of them smaller, family-owned businesses – hold foreign-denominated debt, according to official figures, raising concern about a further slowdown in investment as financing costs rise. “My chief concern about corporate FX debt would be knock-on effects on domestic demand rather than a wave of bankruptcies,” said Nomura economist Inan Demir. “Even…more detail

Aberdeen Asset Management Aberdeen Asset Management is channeling its inner Brothers Grimm. The UK-based investment firm, which has $374 billion in assets, on February 9 released six videos that illustrate the commonplace mistakes made by fixed-income investors. Each lesson plays off of a well-known childhood fable in a fun, 60-second cartoon. The firm enlisted the help of Michael Gambon, the actor who played Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, to narrate the shorts. In fable two titled “A lesson in Independence,” the firm played on Han Christian Andersen’s, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” to show investors the danger of blindly…... [read more]

By Trevor Hunnicutt | NEW YORK NEW YORK A spate of elections this year that threaten to change Europe's course and rattle the continent's largest political bloc and currency is normally the sort of uncertainty that scares away international investors. Instead, deep-pocketed investors are buying into the continent's stocks - and trimming their stakes in the United States, where stock markets have been at record levels - in the hope some bargain shopping will pay off. The 2017 calendar is marked with a series of European elections in big countries that have put markets on the edge, including a March…... [read more]

Brexit is about to make CEOs of some of Britain’s biggest public companies a whole lot richer. That may sound counter-intuitive since evidence is mounting on how the plan to quit the European Union is hurting businesses. But pay packages of many FTSE 100 chief executive officers are partly tied to how well share prices are doing rather than the CEO’s performance -- and some stocks are soaring. British equities got a boost since the June vote because the likes of Rio Tinto, Smiths Group and WPP generate most sales abroad and earn a fortune when they convert these revenues…... [read more]

Stephen Beer is one of those who say the church will use its position to address the issues of excessive executive pay The Church of England has told Britain’s biggest firms it will fight bosses who hand themselves bumper pay deals. The Church Investors Group – which looks after £17billion – wrote to bosses of the biggest 350 firms to warn it would not tolerate executive pay out of kilter with that of ordinary employees. It follows figures showing pay for FTSE 100 chief executives rose from an average of £1million in 1998 to £4.3million in 2015. Stephen Beer, of…... [read more]

LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - European shares rose on Wednesday led by mining stocks and financials on a heavy day for regional corporate results. The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.5 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was flat. Norwegian insurer Storebrand was the best performing stock on the index, up 6.9 percent to a nine-year high after forecast-beating earnings and the first dividend in six years was cheered by investors. Shares of British asset manager Aberdeen Asset Management , which have struggled over the past two years, rose 4.5 percent after RBC raised the stock to "sector perform" from "underperform".…... [read more]

Investment house Schroders has topped an annual list of the worst performing funds in the investment industry. The 'Spot the Dog' report - which measures underperformance over the past three years - is topped by the firm's UK mid-cap fund, managed by Andy Brough, after it lagged the FTSE 100 by 13 per cent over three years. Although Schroders had just one fund on the 41-strong list, it is ranked by asset size, meaning the £1.1billion fund tops the table. Dog days: Four Aberdeen offerings made the latest list of poorly performing funds Bestinvest said of the fund: 'Veteran manager…... [read more]

Top of the flops: Schroders has been named and shamed for its £1.2bn UK Mid Cap 250 Schroders has topped a controversial list highlighting the world's 42 worst-performing equity funds. The fund manager has been named and shamed for its £1.2billion UK Mid Cap 250, deemed the largest fund to have under-performed by more than 5 per cent over the past three years. The list has been produced by investment firm Bestinvest, part of the Tilney Group, and is designed to expose the so-called 'dog funds' of the market place. It also found that Aberdeen Asset Management – one of…... [read more]

Top of the flops: Schroders has been named and shamed for its £1.2bn UK Mid Cap 250 Schroders has topped a controversial list highlighting the UK's 42 worst-performing equity funds. The fund manager has been named and shamed for its £1.2billion UK Mid Cap 250, deemed the largest fund to have under-performed by more than 5 per cent over the past three years. The list has been produced by investment firm Bestinvest, part of the Tilney Group, and is designed to expose the so-called 'dog funds' of the market place. It also found that Aberdeen Asset Management – one of…... [read more]

Job creation in the United States surged in January, but wage growth cooled sending an ambiguous signal about the likelihood of more near term interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. According to official data, total non-farm payrolls rose by 227,000 last month, much higher than the 175,000 expected by economists. However, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.8 per cent, from 4.7 per cent previously due to an increase in the participation rate to 62.9 per cent from 62.7 per cent the previous month. And average earnings grew by only 0.1 per cent in the month, down from the…... [read more]